2010-06-30

LANSING, Mich. – The Lansing Lugnuts
will crown the top power hitter in the capital city on Friday, July
30th, as they host Hometown Power Night presented by the Lansing Board of
Water
& Light.Hometown Power Night
affords local sluggers a chance to show off their strength in a Home Run Derby competition at Cooley Law School
Stadium. The contest consists
of three rounds, with check-in beginning at 1:30 p.m. and the first round scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m.The top 10 sluggers will advance to the second round, where the
three
best home run hitters will have the chance to slug it out in the finals in
front of the crowd before the Lugnuts' game that
night."We look forward to
Hometown Power Night every
year," said Lugnuts General Manager Pat Day. "We thank theLansing
Boardof Water &
Light as we celebrate and cheer on the finest
local power hitters."The Home Run Derby
is open to anyone who wishes to compete.Interested
participants must RSVP to Lugnuts Sponsorship
Representative Jill Niemi by July 27th at jniemi@lansinglugnuts.com
or at
(517) 485-4500, ext. 234.

2010-06-29

LANSING,
Mich. – The Lansing Lugnuts, in conjunction with
the Toronto Blue Jays, announced Tuesday that All-Star
catcherA.J. Jimenezhas been
placed on the 7-day Disabled List (oblique) retroactive to June 27th
with catcher Yan Gomestransferred to Lansing
from the Dunedin
Blue Jays (A-Advanced, Florida
State League).

The
Lugnuts roster comprises 25 active players and three players
on the DL.

2010-06-28

New
York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano was the leading vote-getter
in All-Star Game ballots cast by the Baseball Bloggers
Alliance, outpacing Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria.
Cano received a whopping 45 votes, with only Longoria and Texas's Josh
Hamilton also reaching the 35-vote level in the American League.
Starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies led the
National League with 36 votes.

Cano was
the clear choice at second base by the BBA, with only the one vote
received by each of Seattle's Chone Figgins, Texas's Ian Kinsler, and
Boston's Dustin Pedroia keeping Cano from an unanimous decision.
Longoria's 39 votes outpaced Boston's Adrian Beltre (with six), with
Michael Young of the Texas Rangers a distant third with two votes.

The rest of the American League
infield, if selected by the BBA, would feature Minnesota's Justin
Morneau, who just edged out Detroit's Miguel Cabrera by two votes for
the first base nod, and New York Yankees' captain Derek Jeter at
shortstop, as he more comfortably finished ahead of Elvis Andrus of the
Rangers and Alex Gonzalez of the Toronto Blue Jays.

While the Rangers were close with
many of their infielders, it is in the outfield that they finally break
through, as Hamilton led all outfielders with his 35 votes. He would be
joined in the outfield by Tampa Bay's Carl Crawford and Seattle's
Ichiro Suzuki, who used a late surge to surpass Alex Rios of the Chicago
White Sox for the final slot. Texas also would be honored with the
designated hitter, as Vladimir Guerrero easily outpolled the Red Sox's
David Ortiz for that position.

The battery for the American
League was Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins and David Price of the Rays.
Mauer won handily over Boston's Victor Martinez, while Price got the
nod to start over the Mariners' Cliff Lee.

Races in the National League were a
little more competitive.

The closest race was in the middle of the diamond. As of right before
the deadline, Philadelphia's Chase Utley and Atlanta's Martin Prado were
tied with 16 votes apiece. The late votes pushed Utley over the top
19-16.

Other close races included third
base, which saw New York's David Wright take out Washington's Ryan
Zimmerman by four votes and Cincinnati's Scott Rolen by six, and the
last outfield slot. Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers and Andre
Ethier were overwhelming picks, receiving 30 votes each, but Chicago's
Marlon Byrd slipped past Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen by two votes in
the last surge of voting to take the final position.

Rounding
out the National League selections were Colorado catcher Miguel Olivo,
St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols and Florida shortstop Hanley
Ramirez. Jimenez was the overwhelming choice to take the ball for the
senior circuit, receiving over 30 more votes than his closest
competitor.

All members of the BBA were eligible to make their selections. Bloggers
were allowed to vote for either the American League, the National
League, or both leagues if they so desired. Ballots were published on
the individual blogs as a show of transparency.

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in 2009 and
numbers 184 blogs covering all major league teams and various other
aspects of baseball among its members, as well as blogs and sites that
have affiliated as Friends of the BBA. The official website of the BBA
is located at www.baseballbloggersalliance.com. The BBA can
be found on Twitter by the handle @baseballblogs and by the hashmark
#bbba. Members of the BBA may be heard at Blog Talk Radio each Tuesday
night with their call-in show, BBA Baseball Talk.

2010-06-27

Thanks to the humanity shown by the Jays, McDonald was home for the
final 11 days of his father’s life, alternately laughing and crying but
always celebrating a life well lived. McDonald recalled for the fans one
of the highlight conversations from that final week.
“One year I struck out only once in high school,” he said. “We had a
game where no umpires showed. They knew my dad was an ump so they
pulled him out of the crowd. On a two-strike pitch, he punched me out on
a curveball. We were talking in the hospital with a bunch of his umpire
friends. I said, ‘Dad, was that really a strike?’ He said, ‘Son, it was
a strike then and it’s a strike now.’”

This is a touchy subject for me. I lost my Dad when I was younger and debated on whether or not to add this wonderful story. In the end, this may end up being the story of the year and I am happy John had an opportunity to spend some time with his father before he passed away. To hit a homerun in his first at bat back in the line up after his death, considering he had 13 in 1911 plate appearances over his 12 season in the Major Leagues, well that is something very special.

Hours prior to the Blue Jays' contest against the Cardinals on Wednesday
night at Rogers Centre, an earthquake reading 5.5 on the Richter Scale
sent shock waves throughout the city of Toronto, spanning as far as
Boston, Chicago, and New York.
While an earthquake in Toronto is practically unheard of -- the last one
of this magnitude coming nearly 20 years ago -- this is the second time
this month the Blue Jays have experienced a series of tremors.

Earthquake in Ontario? Last year we had a bunch of tornadoes touch down and now this? Yikes.

BOB OWSNETT ASKS: I've always wondered what's involved in a
pitcher's SIMULATED game? Does it take place under the stands with a
strike zone target OR out on the diamond with a catcher? Are certain
situations set up? Do they pitch a full game or just a few innings? Do
they actually face batters, OR is it like throwing in the bullpen?
Please enlighten me on this subject.
BUCK: Good question Bob. We always talk about a pitcher throwing a
"simulated" game without much explanation. Generally this involves a
pitcher coming back from injury. As he builds up his arm strength and
stamina getting closer to major league action, the team will set up one
of these sim sessions. The idea is to simulate the action of pitching an
inning. He will face some of his own hitters, the catcher will call
pitches and the pitching coach will serve as the umpire. The inning will
consist of a regular sequence of pitches to a batter that has an
at-bat. If he gets a base hit he doesn't run the bases but the pitcher
will work out of the stretch. When three outs are recorded, the inning
is over, the pitcher takes his normal break between innings and resumes
the process. This simulated game is the last practice a pitcher has
before he makes a "rehab assignment" in the minors as a final tune up
before activation onto the major league roster. Of course I would always
prefer they simulate no-hitters!

Buck does his weekly Q & A. Usually pretty basic stuff but this was somewhat enlightening.

The Padres have acquired Kyle
Phillips from the Blue Jays in exchange for a player to be
named later, according to Jordan Bastian of
MLB.com (via Twitter). The move represents a homecoming for
Phillips, who was born in San
Diego.
The 26-year-old broke into the major leagues for the first
time last year, compiling five hits in 18 late-season plate appearances
for Toronto. Over the course of nine minor league seasons with three
different organizations, Phillips has a slash line of .265/.333/.381.
Though he came through the minors as a catcher, he has spent most of his
time this year at third base, hitting .258/.310/.333 in 71 plate
appearances for the Jays' Triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas.
Richard
Griffin of the Toronto Star points out (via Twitter)
that Phillips was stuck behind a slew of players on the Jays' catcher
and corner infield depth charts.

Paul Beeston’s November presidential visit to Halladay in Oldsmar,
Fla. in was the date when there was no turning back.
“I didn’t tell Paul I didn’t want to come back,” Halladay said. “I
said I didn’t want to sign long-term, keep my options open. I wanted a
chance to win ...”
Halladay catches himself and adds: “basically I guess by me saying
that, I was saying the same thing.”

A lot of interesting stuff came out about the Roy Halladay trade this week. I'm glad this ordeal is over with and wish him well on the rest of his season.

“When (former GM) J.P. (Ricciardi) was still with them, he had come
to us and said what about this extension, blah, blah, blah,” Brandy
explained. “They offered us a lot of money. Like we said, it’s not about
the money, it’s about putting ourselves in the position to attain the
goals we set for ourselves. We said at this time we can’t sign that
extension because we don’t know where the team’s going.”
The Jays sent an entourage to Tampa to meet with the Halladays at
their home in December of ’08 prior to the winter meetings. The option
for the best pitcher in baseball at the time was to sign an extension or
else the Jays would explore trade opportunities.

“At that point we had been asked for a list of teams,” she said.
“At spring training we said, ‘Look, if you’re going to (trade), do it
now. Don’t do it during the year because it’s a media frenzy for the
team, it’s a media frenzy for us. Either get it done or let us do our
job. When they didn’t, we thought we would be here all year. We never
went and said we want a trade. They came to us every time.”

Isn’t it nicer, now that the Blue Jays clubhouse is so loose?
That real serious guy, who never smiled or laughed, has left.
In the spring, Shaun Marcum said with Roy Halladay gone the Jays
clubhouse would be looser, the Jays would “have fun,” and Marcum would
“talk to young guys.”
It was a shot at the departed Halladay’s intensity. People within the
Jays organization have said the clubhouse was more relaxed once
Halladay left with his all-too-serious attitude.

This story got a few of my fellow Jays bloggers pretty pissed. What do you guys think?

2010-06-26

A couple weeks back, myself and Golden Arm were talking about the idea of the player who bats right handed but throws left handed. We figured it can't be that magical and must be common place right? Not so much. With the St. Louis Cardinals in town last week, they have a player Ryan Ludwick who does just that, so I decided to scan The Blue Jays major and minor league rosters to find just how rare it is. For the sake of argument, I will include position players and pitchers. Here's the tally:

2010-06-25

Ladies and gentlemen, if
you do not plan to be watching the game tonight I think it is fair to
say you are not welcome here at 1BlueJaysWay anymore. Doc will be
facing his former teammates and I thought you may be interested in his
career numbers vs our boys.

I was asked to do a guest post by
contributor Jay Ballz over at his site Phoul
Ballz.com and gladly accepted. Take a look when you have a chance,
my current thoughts about life minus the Doctor are all there for all to see.

LANSING,
Mich. – The Lansing Lugnuts, in conjunction with
the Toronto Blue Jays, announcedthat
pitchersChad
Jenkins and Evan Crawford have been promoted to the
Dunedin Blue Jays (A-Advanced, Florida State League). In a
corresponding
move, pitchers Scott Gracey and Egan Smith have been
transferred
to Lugnuts from the Auburn Doubledays (Short-A,
New York-Penn
League).

Jenkins,
22, was selected 20th overall in the 2009
Amateur Draft and was voted to the Midwest League Eastern Division
All-Star
team. In 13 starts with Lansing, the right-hander posted a 5-4 record
with a 3.63 ERA in 79.1 innings. He walked only 13 batters while
striking
out 64.

Crawford,
23, cycled between the Lansing bullpen and the starting
rotation, going 3-2 with a 4.01 earned run average in 16 appearances
(seven
starts).

Gracey
and Smith each began their 2010 campaigns with the Lugnuts
before they were transferred to Auburn on June 15th. In a
pair
of starts for the Doubledays, Smith allowed no earned runs over 11
innings
while striking out 11. Gracey added five scoreless one-hit innings in a
pair of relief appearances.

The
Lugnuts roster comprises
25 active
players and two players on the DL.

2010-06-23

The Human Rain Delay, Jimmy Triggz, LastRow500's and me, The Man With The Golden Arm decided to brave the police state that is Toronto and head down to see King Albert live and in the flesh. I left my house in Guelph at 2pm for a 7:07 start, expecting the worst. You know what, it was a piece of cake. Got the car parked, picked up the tickets from the box office and even got a seat at St. Louis Bar and Grill before 5pm.

Now I mentioned that King Albert was "a" reason why we braved the cops and fences to catch the game. But in fact the real reason was because our boy Jesse was taking in the game and we wanted to meet this American friend of ours. He did not disappoint, taking a half inning out of his busy schedule to sit and chat with us about baseball and life in general.

Jesse also got some time on the air, discussing all things prospect on Jays Talk. He did forget to plug the blog but what are you gonna do? Guess we could forgive him this one time.....

The game itself was pretty ugly. King Albert went 0 for 4. We lost 9 - 4 and it was #TweetingTuesday which I gotta tell you, is a fucking terrible promotion. I got an idea: why don't the cheap bastards @ Rogers bring back twoonie Tuesdays instead?

J-Bau went deep twice to raise his Major League leading total to 20. Hope he is coming out of that slump a little bit, considering we DFA'd E5 so that he play some 3 bag when Snider gets well. I don't disagree with that move at all but I have E5 for 3 bucks in my big money AL only fantasy league and would have appreciated a phone call or something beforehand from the brain trust so that I could have traded his ass. I don't know if he clears waivers or not but The Cito had this to say about the move:

Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston made it quite clear
on Tuesday that 3B Edwin
Encarnacion was not designated for assignment on Monday because of a
lack of effort or hustle. "I never felt that way about Edwin," Gaston
told MLB.com. "What you guys probably heard on the radio, I mean, we
don't tell you guys who's knees are hurting them or who's legs are
hurting, because then the opposition knows about it. Edwin, he's been
beat up a little bit, sore in his legs and stuff, because he didn't have
spring training. When guys don't run the ball out, sometimes it's got
nothing to do with their effort. It's got something to do with we tell
them to pull up. [The move had] nothing to do with that. If a guy's not
running or playing up to what I think he should be doing, if he's
healthy, then I will say something to him. So it's got nothing to do
with that."

As for the game tonight, we got Ricky Romero (6-3 3.08 ERA) on the bump against former Jay Chris Carpenter (8-1 2.83 ERA). Great pitching match up and one I will be happy to take in from the safety and comfort of my couch.

We can't believe this game decides home field advantage in the World Series. Like it blows our mind that our sport does this.

Anyways, here are some picks that we would like to see in the game. Keeping in mind that:

A) we think the game itself is a joke
B) we think the voting process is a bigger joke
C) this is a Blue Jays blog
D) we like our fellow Canadians
E) we absolutely HATE the Yankees and Red Sox

1st Base: Justin Morneau

He is the leading vote getter currently. Probably because Target Field is selling out every night and not the fact he is in the mix for a potential triple crown. But so is Miguel Cabrera. In this case, we pull out the Canadian connection card and our vote goes to the boy from New Westminster, B.C. Did anybody else notice his .447 OBP?

We will say this: Mark Teixeira and his .225 average have no business being second in votes ahead of Miggy. That's just insane.....

2nd Base: Robinson Cano

Pains us to do it but he is clearly the pick. Moving right along.....

3rd Base: Evan Longoria

You know what, we think Adrian Beltre probably deserves it more. But he is a Red Sox and we say fuck em.

Shortstop: Alex Gonzalez

Some guy named Jeter has 2,692,418 votesand his numbers look like this:

.280 8 HR 39 RBI

Our pick has 556,965 votes and his numbers look like this:

.269 13 HR 38 RBI

For the record:
Yankees attendance to this point in the season 1,597,690
Blue Jays attendance to this point in the season 606,247

Catcher: Joe Mauer

Realistically you could give it to any of the following guys: Mauer, Martinez or Posada. They are all having somewhat comparable seasons. But since Mauer is the only one who does not play for our free spending fucking divisional rivals, he gets the nod.

DH: Vladimir Guerrero

Vladdy is having a hell of a season and looks to be the bounce back player of the year so far. Playing in that ballpark in Texas must be helping his power numbers a bit, 15 HR 57 RBI, but how do you explain the 4 stolen bases?

Outfield: Josh Hamilton

What can you say about this guy? His numbers for this year almost match his numbers for all of last year.....He looks healthy and deserves to be recognized.

Ichiro is doing what Ichiro does. Second in the league in hits, gold glove caliber defense in RF, stealing bases even though he is "getting on" in years.

Outfield: Jose Bautista

Alright, this is a total homer pick. We could have very easily picked some floater from the White Sox or free agent to be / future Yankee Carl Crawford with this final pick. And they are both very deserving candidates.

HOWEVER

Ever since The Blue Jay Hunter came up with this brilliant idea Ballots for Bautista and we decided to jump on board, well, there is no backing down now. Bautista just hammered 2 more home runs last night and currently leads the Major Leagues with 20. He hit a rough patch there for a few weeks and we know he is hitting .232 but.....

Let's put it this way: How the fuck is the Major League leader in home runs not going to be in the All Star game?

Starting Pitcher: David Price

One final fuck you to Phil Hughes, Clay Buchholz, Andy Pettitte, John Lackey, Jon Lester and CC Sabathia.

Price is 10 - 3 with a 2.45 ERA. But more importantly, he doesn't play for the Evil Empire or the Red Sucks.....yet.

A quick side note: We would be perfectly happy if NONE of our pitchers made the roster for this stupid game. Marcum, Romero and Cecil have good enough numbers to be considered but we would much prefer they use the break to get some rest and come out flying in the second half.

2010-06-21

As you can probably tell, we here at 1BlueJaysWay have a major man crush on our first round pick, 20th overall, from last year's draft. Our boy Jesse snagged this audio for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!

Best quote: "I still hear those noises, in bed sometimes, those pings"

Chad will be pitching in The Midwest League All-Star Game, on Tuesday at 7:05 @ Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

2010-06-20

We know Roy Halladay has been amazing so far during his time with
Phillies but there remains a question about his ability to dominate in
big games since he pitched in very few during his time with the hapless
Toronto Blue Jays. We got a chance to see him in that situation
yesterday against the New York Yankees.

Dickhead comment but there may be some truth to it. How many times has an ace buckled under when it counted most? Not saying Roy falls into that category but do we really know how he will preform in "the big game"?

Since the trade to Toronto though, Lewis numbers look a little funny.
His slash line is .291/.333/.814, and his plate discipline numbers look
even more peculiar.
His O-swing percentage this year is 30 percent, a career high, and the
first time in his Major League career when it's been above the league
average. His swing percentage is 49.4 percent, the highest percentage
since his rookie year in 2006 when it was 50 percent.
But you know what? It hasn't hurt him. Yes, Lewis is drawing less walks
(his BB percentage is only 5.8 percent, almost five points lower than
last year), still striking out a lot (27.7 percent exactly) and his BB/K
ratio (0.23) and OBP aren't as comforting as they were in his Giants
days. Yet Lewis is producing. His wOBA is .351. His wRC+ is 110. He has
already matched his doubles total from last year (21) in 113 less plate
appearances. His ISO at .189 is a career high by 31 points.

Saddled with another
disabled-list stint in 2008, Rolen worked his way back in Florida
with Hap Hudson, his longtime rehab guru who currently is the
rehabilitation coordinator with the Blue Jays."You have strength and you have the ability,"
Hudson told Rolen. "Let's find a way."So they began the heavy lifting. So to speak."You can't do it like
you did in '98 [.290, 31 homers, 110 RBI for Philadelphia],"
Hudson told him. "And you can't do it like you did in '04 [.314,
34 homers, 124 RBI for St. Louis]."Not like that."They
hatched a plan that was a concession to the limited range of motion
in his left shoulder, but not an outright surrender to the surgeon's
scalpel and Father Time.

In his stance, Rolen moved his hands closer to his shoulders. And
he moved them down.Point was, this would take the stress off his shoulder.

Arencibia powering up
for Las Vegas: Blue Jays C prospect J.P.
Arencibia is just begging for a recall with his recent performance
at the plate for Triple-A Las Vegas. Arencibia homered for the sixth
time in nine games on Thursday. He also extended his hitting streak to
eight games and is hitting .439 (18 for 41) in his last 10 contests. He
has nine RBI and seven multi-hit games in that span.
(Updated
06/18/2010).

Fantasy Analysis

Arencibia has raised his batting average to .284 to go along with 14
homers and 35 RBI in 55 games. He had a .558 slugging percentage and
.890 OPS. The only negative is that Arencibia has 50 strikeouts and just
16 walks. If the tandem of John Buck and Jose Molina hadn't worked so
well for Toronto this season, then Arencibia probably would have been
recalled by now. But he continues to toil in the minors in the meantime.
Arencibia is considered the Jays' second-best prospect, according to Baseball
America, and it largely has to do with his power potential.
Arencibia is worth holding onto in long-term Fantasy keeper leagues and
AL-only formats for a potential callup in 2010.
(Updated
06/18/2010).

McGowan’s latest MRI inconclusive

Dustin McGowan’s long comeback bid has taken another uncertain turn.
The Toronto Blue Jays right-hander, who has not pitched in a game
since undergoing shoulder surgery in July 2008, felt a pop in his
shoulder earlier this week in Florida. But an MRI showed “no new
information,” the Jays announced Friday.
McGowan, 28, will visit specialist James Andrews in Alabama for
further evaluation on Monday.
He has had a series of setbacks over the past year. In spring
training, he seemed poised to start pitching in games again before
shoulder pain shut him down.

To begin his acceptance speech, Roberto Alomar thought back to the
morning of December 5th, 1990 when he received the call that he'd been
traded from the San Diego Padres to the Toronto Blue Jays.
He asked his father for advice and Alomar's father said he was going to
play for one of the best managers in the game, Cito Gaston.
Along with his former coach, Roberto Alomar spoke very highly of his
teammates from the Toronto Blue Jays and relayed an important message
which rings true today:

"When I came to Toronto, I played with a great bunch of
guys. And to win championships, you have to win together and you have to
lose together."

Since Alomar's retirement, there was
been talk of him returning to the Toronto Blue Jays in some sort of
coaching capacity. As he looked to his right over to Paul Beeston
sitting on a picnic table, Alomar said:

"Hopefully one day, the Blue Jays can give me a job!"

Beeston boozing it up on said picnic table

I was lucky enough to link up with The Blue Jay Hunter and we sat together for this ceremony. Gotta say Paul Quantrill's acceptance speech (which Ian has audio of) stole the show.

On team needing better approach: “Sometimes, guys
are going up there and it looks like they have no idea what they’re
doing. I’m not saying that to bash guys. I want guys to be successful, I
want this team to be successful, and I have to produce as well. I'm
part of this. But it takes a lot more than one big bat. We definitely
need that one guy who could hit you 40 home runs, but from top to
bottom, you need guys getting on base. You need guys in there who have a
plan, who have a clue and who know how to execute that plan and get on
base. We don’t need every guy in this lineup trying to hit home runs.
We’re paid to get on base and figure out how to score and drive in runs.
You look at the Yankees. They have guys who can hit home runs but
everybody in that lineup can get on base.”On hitting coach Terry Crowley and player accountability:
"You have to go up there with an approach. [Crowley] has 110 percent
nothing to do with the way we are going about our business at the plate
and on the field right now. You can have anybody come here and you still
are going to have a couple of guys who are not going to change their
approach and fix it. It’s worthless. You can point your fingers here and
there, but it is what it is. You’re in the big leagues. You have to
change your approach on your own. If you go up there clueless, you’re
going to come back [to the dugout] clueless. It’s that simple." On direction of the club: “At this point, yeah,
where are we going? I know we have a lot of injured guys, we’re in the
toughest division in baseball and we’re a last-place team. But at this
point, it’s mind boggling. You don’t even know what to think, but you
still have to be professional and go out and play every day.”

Sounds like there is some trouble brewing down in Baltimore. They already fired their manager, so what do you do next?

Lind adds 1B to
repertoire: Blue Jays OF Adam
Lind has been working on fielding from first base prior to games
and is going to be available as a backup first baseman, according to
MLB.com. "Lind's played first base before," manager Cito Gaston said.
"He's taking ground balls over there just kind of as a backup thing. If
something happens to [Lyle] Overbay, or we want to give Overbay a day
off, we can run Lind over there."
(Updated 06/19/2010).

Fantasy Analysis

Lind would need a handful of appearances at first base to gain
eligibility at the position. Still, his greatest value would remain as
an outfielder in Fantasy and his .209 batting average is hard to start
in any position at the moment. Lind has been one of the most
disappointing players in baseball so far in 2010 and he's being benched
in many mixed leagues as a result. He has plenty of time to turn things
around, however, so don't give up on him just yet.
(Updated
06/19/2010).

“It’s something that we’ve been talking about the last little while,
just to get him going,” Anthopoulos said. “Certainly, he was
disappointed in the decision that we made, but again, we told him this
wasn’t permanent. He goes down there, plays well, starts to get his
swing going a little bit, he should be able to find his way back here.”
Anthopoulos stressed that the move does not represent punishment for
Encarnacion’s erratic defence or perceived lack of hustle.
“He’s a great kid,” the GM said. “Edwin is first-class. He’s a good
person. This one was tough. He’s classy. A lot of times you have things
like this happen, players storm out of the office, don’t shale your
hand. He shook our hands. He’s a very good human being. He cares.”

I was feeling bad about getting the round up posted a bit late today. But then this story broke. E5 to AAA. Wonder how he responds.....

2010-06-18

LANSING, Mich. – Mark
Thomas plated pinch-runner Diogenes Luis with a one-out RBI single
in the
tenth inning, lifting the Bowling Green Hot Rods (29-37) over the
Lansing
Lugnuts (36-30), 5-4, on Thursday night on Jackson Field.The wild affair saw
five different lead changes in addition to
a balk, two wild pitches, two passed balls, and three hit batsmen.Facing reliever
Aaron Loup (3-1) with one out in the tenth,
Ryan Wiegand sliced a triple past Lansing left fielder Eric Eiland.
The
Lugnuts summoned Casey Beck from the bullpen and brought the infield
in,
but Thomas came through with a clean line drive into center field
for the
lead.The Lugnuts went
down quietly in the bottom of the tenth
against victor Alex Koronis (5-2), who completed his second
scoreless
inning in relief.Lansing starter Chad
Jenkins allowed nine hits and three runs
in five innings in a no-decision, while Bowling Green starter Jason
McEachern struck out seven batters in six innings but also tossed a
pair of
run-scoring wild pitches.Hot Rods right
fielder Brett Nommensen delivered an RBI single
and a two-run double to aid the winning effort, with All-Star left
fielder
Chris Murrill chipping in with three hits and a pair of runs scored.In the loss for
Lansing, designated hitter Kevin Ahrens
provided a two-run first inning double and Kenny Wilson and Ryan
Goins each
scored a pair of runs.On Friday night at
7:00, the Lugnuts open a three-game series
at Lake County. Lansing right-hander Ryan Tepera (6-2, 3.34) will
head to
the mound against Captains right-hander Brett Brach (0-3, 4.45).

2010-06-17

Allow your mind to wander back in time. Back to a time when there were only 4 divisions in baseball and 97 wins was not good enough to make the playoffs.

Your Toronto Blue Jays were a team that featured names like: Whitt, Garcia, Fernandez, Upshaw, Mulliniks, Iorg, Stieb, Alexander, Key, Clancy, Acker, Henke and arguably the best young trio of outfielders in all of baseball: Bell, Moseby and Barfield.

In the dugout, the calm and steady hand of Bobby Cox called the shots and a young coach that went by the name Cito took care of the hitters. The front office staff included GM Pat Gillick and Paul Beeston, who at that time was the executive vice president.

We were entering our ninth season in the Majors and only twice had we managed to finish with a record over .500. The city was embracing this game of baseball and was eager to build on a second place finish from the year before. On May 20, we gained sole possession of 1st place, a position we would not relinquish for the remainder of the season, finishing with a record of 99 – 62 and smashing attendance benchmarks along the way.

To this day, 99 still stands as the club’s best single season win total.

That magical season in which we won our first pennant will always be known as "The Drive of '85".

We here at 1BlueJaysWay were lucky enough to track down an unsung hero from that team. A man who’s name does not appear above. A man who pitched only 1 season in Toronto. A man who posted a 7-0 record with a 3.88 ERA during that famous Drive toward the postseason. A man who now molds and mentors young pitchers in the Pirates system, for Altoona in the Double A level Eastern League. A man named Tom Filer. 1BlueJaysWay's Jay Ballz had the opportunity to catch up with Tom this week, and that interview lies ahead.

So far in 2010, your Altoona Curve pitching staff has been solid and has led the team to a 42-23 record atop the Western division in the Eastern League. Talk a bit about the success of your pitching staff.

Well, so far the guys have been great. We're pretty strong 1-12 and our guys, for the most part, have been throwing strikes. And we've got some pretty good athletes out on the mound and it shows in their performances.

Are there certain guys on your staff that you have great confidence could reach great success at higher levels?

I think every time you have a staff, there are certain guys who kind of stand out more than others, but I like to think that all of them have an opportunity to move on. I like a couple of our left handers, especially Rudy Owens (28th round 2006 draft pick) and Justin Wilson (5th round 2008 draft pick). And 1 through 5, our rotation is pretty strong. We've got Daniel Moskos (1st round 2007 draft pick) closing out games. They're all doing a great job.

In 1985, you were a virtual rookie coming up to put forth a great effort and helped the Blue Jays advance to their first post season. What was that experience like and what was your excitement level like coming into that situation and contributing so much?

I wasn't really young at the time...I was 27 or 28 at the time. I had a cup of coffee (years before that) with the Cubs, but that year, I went to winter ball and did really well and came back stateside and went to spring training and almost made the team. I went to Triple-A that year and threw very well and I got an opportunity to come back up to the big leagues, I think, in June of that year. We had a very good ball club at the time...very young, very athletic. We had the likes of Willie Upshaw at first base, Tony Fernandez played short, George Bell was in left and Jesse Barfield- are some of the names that people might remember, but we were very good and athletic, so if I was able the throw the ball over the plate and keep it down, our guys made plays for me. I think it's very important to anybody's success is the defense that you have behind you.

What was it like experiencing history for Toronto, with that organization going to the post season for the very first time?

Well, that year, Toronto was drawing tremendous crowds all the time...both home and on the road. We were an exciting team to watch. The guys were really up for it. I had so much fun that year. Just remembering- each game that I pitched was so important and every game we played was so important. But nobody made anything of the game, they just went out and played the game. That's what made it exciting for me. And I just remember going to New York, and we had a two game lead, and we had to go to Boston right afterwards and I think we won 6 out of the 8 ball games we played.

Can I get your thoughts on Bobby Cox?

Ah, I love him. I tell you what, when I was there, Bobby was in his 3rd or 4th year of managing and he was like a father figure to you. He was very open, but very strong in his opinions and how he handled people. I remember those days fondly and I remember things he would say to me. He was always mentoring.

You grew up in Philadelphia...did you grow up as a Phillies phan?

Definitely. I don't think you can grow up in Philly without being a Phillies phan. I still am to this day. I always follow the Phillies. I worked for the Phillies for six years before I came over to the Pirates, and they were six very good years.

At what point did you know you would become a baseball coach?

I would think there was a time when I was getting down toward the end of my career and I had people asking me to go over and help with younger players and that's how it started. Helping guys out on my own team, talking about things, because I was the senior member on some of the teams I was on. I've been involved ever since then.

Are there coaches from your past that you knowingly sample their coaching repertoire?

I think it's a combination of everybody. I remember having (former Reds pitcher) Sammy Ellis as one of my early pitching coaches and he helped me out a lot with my mechanics and that's really stuck with me- that's one of my staples in my coaching. I played for Hoyt Wilhelm and he helped us with our mental approach and I still use some of his stories to this day.

Where do you think Toronto ranks among baseball cities?

Toronto, when I was there, it was a fever pitch. Back in the 80's through the early 90's, that place was sold out every night. I love that town. The eclectic sampling of people you come across, it was really neat and my wife enjoyed it very much while we were there and it was a great time.
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